


The Skin Beneath the Facade

by CatKing_Catkin



Series: Widomauk Week [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angsty Schmoop, Attempted Murder, Caleb Widogast Deserves Nice Things, Comfort Food, Con Artists, Cooking, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fake Dating, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Mollymauk Tealeaf, Love Confessions, M/M, Missions Gone Wrong, Nonbinary Mollymauk Tealeaf, Oblivious Caleb Widogast, Oblivious Mollymauk Tealeaf, POV Mollymauk Tealeaf, Pining, Poisoning, Polymorph Spell, Polymorph as medicine, Requited Love, Sharing a Bed, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 17:03:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21256667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: Molly and Caleb infiltrate a week-long harvest festival in a castle containing a gathering of nobles from all across the Empire. They have a week and no longer to find the information they need about their target and get out unscathed.And of course, to allay potential suspicion and have an excuse to stick close to each other, they go undercover as a couple, Caleb playing the part of a detached, disinterested lord and Molly as the pet he keeps on his arm. Molly thinks it's all in good fun, at least until they catch themself starting to believe some of the lies. It's hard to stay master of their own heart when they finally have the chance to have Caleb all to themself for a while.(Or - Widomauk fake dating AU in a fancy castle. Heavy on the oblivious pining. They share a bed twice.Written for Widomauk Week 2019, Day 4, prompt "Free day")





	The Skin Beneath the Facade

It was so easy to forget how charming Caleb could be when the situation called for it. Sometimes Molly wondered if even Caleb himself forgot until the moment when he needed to flip that switch in his head. 

When the group collectively agreed that the two of them would take point on this infiltration, the expectation had probably been that Molly would do most of the heavy lifting on the social side of things to give Caleb as many chances as possible to gather evidence and information. Molly was good at drawing attention to themself and keeping it there even without making use of their blood powers. Molly was very good at reading people, at picking out lies that Caleb could then follow up on.

And that was mostly how the plan went, with some minor alterations.

As it turned out, Caleb was very, _very_ good at pretending to be in love with someone. Furthermore, he was good at pretending to be effortlessly at ease in social situations around a lot of powerful people.

That had thrown Molly for a loop, but they were nothing if not adaptable. They hadn’t lived long, but the years they’d lived so far had afforded them an unmatched chance to observe a vast cross-section of humanity. They had plenty of potential models for acceptable behavior. Sometimes the circus had even been lucky enough to perform for the sorts of people that kept decorative people on an arm.

So, with Caleb playing the part of the detached, disinterested, and sardonic lord, Molly simply modified their behavior accordingly. They became his trophy tiefling – submissive and pretty and harmless, quick to smile and quicker to laugh and deeply, deeply stupid.

They reflected wryly to themself that it might have surprised some of their friends, the ease with which they could slip into this role or that. By default, Molly was as aggressively and loudly themself as much and as hard as possible. But really, a good con was at its core a matter of knowing how to dress for any given occasion. It was just a different kind of mask or trinket to adorn themself with. It was just another costume for just another game. The skin they wore beneath the façade never truly changed, and that was all that mattered.

For all his skills at deception and commanding a conversation, it soon became apparent that Caleb couldn’t take things quite as easily as that.

* * *

It was well past sunset when the pair of them were finally able to make their excuses and retreat to their assigned suite. The summer harvest festivities would carry on for a week throughout the castle, after which point all the assembled nobility would return to their own holdings. The two of them had that long and no longer to gather enough incriminating information about their target, and Molly thought they’d made a good start of things today. Really, they thought that they and Caleb had made a delightfully good team.

So it was a bit of an unpleasant surprise when, once they were alone, the first thing Caleb did was cross the room to the bed, flop down atop it, pull a pillow over his head, and let out the most long, exhausted, miserable sigh that Molly had ever heard.

Molly wavered by the door for a moment, their hand still on the lock, before venturing: “You all right over there?”

“Mm. _Ja._ Just…just tired.”

“’Course. Been a long day.”

And Caleb had hated every minute of it. Somehow that had escaped even Molly’s notice before, but now it was plain as day. Molly, for their own part, had had fun – playing a part, knowing they were getting one over on the rich and petty and cruel, how could that have been anything but fun? Having Caleb all to themself for a change had been even better.

Caleb clearly hadn’t felt the same. They just hoped that pretending to be in love with them hadn’t been the greatest hardship of the evening. He’d done such a good job at it, though – he’d even fooled them once or twice.

A little glum at the thought and suddenly fiercely tired in their own right, Molly nevertheless set to work dimming the lamps in the room. Their darkvision let them navigate easily by nothing more than the starlight through the window, enough to let them settle down on the edge of the bed and set to work getting Caleb’s boots off. They saw with satisfaction that he’d stopped trying to smother himself with a pillow now that he didn’t have to escape the light.

“You don’t have to—” he began, once he realized what they were doing.

“I know. Hush.” They got his boots off and set them by the foot of the bed, then urged him to half-roll over so they could get started on the buttons of his fancy coat. He moved enough to let them free one arm and then the other from the thing, which they folded up and set on a chair. Bit by bit and piece by piece, they divested Caleb of everything but his undershirt and pants, and after his initial hesitation he was happy to let them. They could see him relaxing into something other than exhaustion as they freed him from unfamiliar, unwanted, uncomfortable clothes and left him with almost nothing between himself and the bedsheets.

“Mm, _dankeschön_,” Caleb mumbled, and by then he sounded half-asleep, his eyes half-open and staring blindly towards the ceiling. It struck Molly like a shove to the chest just how tired and how trusting Caleb must have been to let himself be undressed in the dark, leaving their heart full of…a lot of things. A lot of emotion, and longing besides. “It’s just, ah, I mean, music, and crowds, and talking, and bright lights…all of those on their own can be a lot to swallow. But all together—”

“All of them together is a nightmare and a half?”

Caleb chuckled, the sound weak and watery. “Something like that.”

It was strange, sitting here with him in the near-darkness, watching Caleb when they couldn’t really be watched in return. It had the taste of something piercingly intimate and faintly obscene. It was, above all, too much - they felt moved to twitch the tip of their tail over his ankle and rest a hand on his hip so he’d know them as something more than a shadow in the dimness. He startled a little when they did so, then sighed softly and seemed to relax a little further.

“You did good, though,” they said. “Seemed to me like you had half the room wrapped around your fingers.”

Caleb gave a quiet hum and flicked his fingers dismissively. “Easier than it looks.” A beat, and then he added in a stammering rush: “You, ah, you did very good, too. I know…I know today probably weighed on you as well. Having to pretend for people like that, for people who…”

He trailed away, seemingly unable to finish, and even with his face hidden in the pillows Molly saw how much the evident truth of the matter made him uncomfortable. That was strangely nice to see, and so they took pity.

“Pretending to be a featherbrain for the sorts of people who disdain my very existence?”

Caleb nodded without lifting his head. Molly laughed lightly and smoothed a hand down his arm in what they hoped would still count as reassurance.

“It was fun,” they said, and meant it. Then: “I think we make a great team, you and I. Couldn’t have asked for a better partner for such a big scam.”

They couldn’t see whether he smiled or not. But his hand moved down to grope for theirs’. They took it happily, and thought they heard the smile in his voice when he spoke again. “I think so, too.”

And, fuck them sideways, hearing those words in Caleb’s voice, just for them, even in full knowledge of the situation and its reality, made Molly’s heart do a traitorous flip in their chest.

Something seemed to occur to Caleb, now that they’d addressed the business of the day. Whatever it was made him half-sit up from the bed to stare towards Molly with nightblind eyes. “You, ah, I meant to say, you don’t have to sleep just because I am tired, I—”

Molly patted his hand and then nudged his shoulder so he’d lay down again. “I know. And I’m not planning on it, not just yet. But this much light is fine for me, remember?”

The relief on his face would have been funny if he hadn’t been so tired. Molly wasn’t surprised he’d forgotten – with the help of his transmutation magic, it had been a while since this particular difference between them had even come up at all. “Ah, right. Of course. Well, um, whenever you want.”

“I won’t be long. Got an early start tomorrow, don’t we?” Today had been productive. Tomorrow morning would be a good chance to start following up on leads before their quarry deigned to rouse himself from his bed.

“We do. Good night, Mollymauk.”

“Night, Caleb.”

They lingered just long enough to help him get the blanket drawn up and over his head, then they padded over to the desk in the corner to play with their cards for a while longer.

The reading they laid for themself was nothing that surprised them in the least, but wasn’t that always the case?

Their swords and their coat were in Jester’s safekeeping, so that usual part of their nighttime routine was denied them. But Molly still crept over to the windowsill, settled themself on it as comfortably as they could, and spent a while praying to the Moonweaver. For strength, for sense, for a cloak of friendly shadows to guide them and Caleb through these unfriendly halls. Somehow, she had always been there for them when they were truly in need.

And they knew that they were truly in need now, that the danger of this place was something more than suspicious guards or powerful nobles. The danger of this place was that they might no longer be master of their own heart for the first time in their too-short life. They looked at Caleb curled up in bed, Frumpkin cuddled up to his chest, and feelings they had somehow managed to tamp down for months now threatened to drown them all in a rush.

It was for their own sake as much as anything that they settled down on the floor next to the bed to sleep. But of course, even that couldn’t work out in their favor in the end.

Oh, Molly fell asleep easily enough – the carpets were plush and they’d certainly slept in worse places. But when they were gently shaken awake and opened their eyes to a room that was still dark, unsure of how much time had passed, it was to see Caleb and Frumpkin both peering over the edge of the bed to regard them.

“What are you doing?” Caleb whispered. “Stop being ridiculous. Come. Come here.” He started to tug Molly up into a sitting position and then towards the bed. “There is plenty of room.”

“’m fine,” Molly mumbled, muffling a yawn with the back of their hand as they said it. But they still felt groggy and disoriented, and so following Caleb’s insistent guiding was somehow easier than not. “I _was_ asleep, I’ll have you know.”

“Yes, yes, fine. But just because the floor is _fine_ does not mean the bed is not _better_.”

He tugged the sheets down fussily in demonstration. For a long moment, Molly could only stare at him – even now, they couldn’t help but be distracted by how very nice Caleb’s hair looked when it was a sleep-tousled mess, how his eyes were such a striking blue even when they were lidded with drowsiness.

Even now, the sight of Caleb inviting them into a bed was a lot to process and just about made their brain short out.

And so, before they knew it, they were doing as they were told. Molly laid down and and let Caleb tug the blanket over them in turn. “It’s just,” they began, before yawning again. “Thought you’d need your space. After today. Wasn’t a hardship to give you some.”

“We have slept closer than this after longer, worse days than this, Mollymauk,” Caleb said, as he settled down again with his back to them. “The dome, ah, the dome doesn’t exactly offer much choice, does it?”

“No, but—”

But that was different. When it was the dome it was all of them piling in like puppies, huddled together against the dark and all its dangers. It was friends, _family_, sharing warmth and safety. It was all of them together and Molly loved them all so much that it was easy not to focus on _any one person_ in particular.

Even they knew that sharing a bed was…different. It carried implications. _Meanings_. And the fact that Caleb seemed to be ignoring all of that so effortlessly only made them feel more guilty that they couldn’t do the same.

Even if Caleb probably couldn’t see the exact look on their face, something in their body language must have betrayed something of their discomfort, impossible even for him to miss when they were this close. And, damn him, he actually _chuckled_ as he half-rolled over to regard them again. “I know you’re not going to do anything untoward, of course. I trust you.”

And of course he had every reason to, of course Molly wasn’t going to _do anything_ or _take advantage_. That had never been anywhere near the plan. But that didn’t change the fact that they couldn’t help but wish that circumstances and desires were _different_. That didn’t change the fierce yearning in their heart for this to be a time and a place where Caleb might _want _Molly to kiss him.

But of course, all they said out loud was: “Of course I’m not. And I’m glad you do.” Because that was, after all, the most important thing to say. That was what mattered.

A flicker of…something passed across Caleb’s face, a thoughtful or pensive flash that briefly made Molly’s chest seize up with panic that they’d somehow betrayed themselves anyway. But the shadow passed as quick as it had come, like it had never been there at all, and in the end maybe it hadn’t been. Molly didn’t have Caleb’s perfect sense of time, after all, but it _felt_ very late. There was every chance that they might have started seeing things.

And in the end, Caleb only smiled again, said “Good night”, and rolled back over to settle back in for sleep. Molly rolled over to face the window and tried to do the same.

Caleb didn’t seem to mind it when their tail twitched over to drape across one of his ankles again. He shifted a little but didn’t even seem to fully wake. And that was a comfort in its own right, enough to settle Molly’s heart, let them close their eyes, and even steal a few more hours of sleep before dawn.

* * *

Their morning began early, sneaking out together to prowl the halls and try to get past a few different locked doors, then into even more locked desks. Molly wasn’t a patch on Nott for lockpicking, but they knew a little, and the locks in the castle weren’t complicated things. They were big, heavy, old, requiring leverage more than finesse. Caleb had a spell for unlocking things in an emergency, but it was a spell that couldn’t possibly be cast silently. He was mostly there to comprehend languages, break codes, and maintain their invisibility.

Their third go at it was an especially productive morning, with them lifting some documents and making transcriptions where actual theft would raise too many questions. They almost got away clean, stepping out of the last room just as Caleb reported their invisibility was about to drop, only to see the very same servant they’d sidled around ten minutes before coming around the corner in search of a lost hair tie, still carrying her mop along with her.

Molly stared at her, stricken, their thoughts racing, wondering how much noise they’d make if they fled around the corner before the spell dropped, wondering if the questions that might follow would be worth it so long as they didn’t lead to bigger and much harder to answer questions. They flinched to find themselves suddenly being dragged, looked round to see Caleb with a very intent look on his face, steering them both quickly but carefully into a darkened alcove that might have once held a painting or suit of armor. It wouldn’t be enough to keep them from being noticed at all, but it might hide their sudden return to visibility, and—

And then Molly’s thoughts were brought to a screeching halt when Caleb pressed them back against the wall, pushed in close, and fixed his mouth to theirs’ in a kiss.

They realized what was _truly_ happening after what couldn’t have been more than a second. It wasn’t a long leap of logic to make, after all. Molly forced themself into motion, wrapped one arm around Caleb’s waist and furrowed their fingers in his hair as they kissed him back for all they were worth. And maybe it was just the adrenaline spiking their nerves, making everything seem more intense, but even if it was all a hasty act it was still a _very_ good kiss, open-mouthed and desperate. Molly didn’t have to fake being breathless at all by the time they heard the telltale gasp of the startled servant from beyond the alcove.

Slowly, with a convincing pretense at reluctance, they both broke apart. Caleb regarded the woman imperiously while Molly twined their arms through his, cuddling close and looking at her through carefully drowsy, lidded eyes.

“So sorry to startle you, dear,” they purred. “Sometimes he just can’t control himself, and who am I to say no?”

The woman blushed a gratifyingly deep shade and averted her gaze, bobbing them both a curtsy. Caleb gave her a short nod in turn, then brushed past her imperiously, leading Molly along. “Get back to work,” he ordered in a clipped tone.

Molly had been ready. As they and the woman passed each other by, they palmed a gold piece into her pocket, waited for her to investigate the momentary brush of fingers, then held a finger to their lips and winked when she looked to them with startled eyes. Then Caleb steered them both around the corner and she was out of sight, and Molly could only hope that the tip made up for the trouble.

They both remained silent and kept up their act all the way back to their chambers, just in case. The morning had already held one unpleasant surprise too many. Molly could feel just how clammy Caleb’s fingers were from leftover shock.

But they made it back to their rooms without any further incident. Caleb closed the door behind them, then leaned back against it with a long, drawn-out sigh as if he’d been holding his breath all this way. Molly wandered somewhat dazedly over to a chair and sat down heavily in it with an equal exhaled breath.

It was a minute or two before they found it in themselves to look at one other once more. Then, like a dam being burst, they each tried to speak at once.

“Caleb—”

“Mollymauk—”

Then they both fell silent. Molly fancied that Caleb closed his mouth hard enough to make his teeth audibly click together. One second ticked by, then two, then three, before Molly managed to make themself move enough to gesture for Caleb to continue.

They definitely saw his throat bob as he swallowed, saw his eyes dart left to right in anxiety. But they remained silent and still, but for an encouraging nod, and eventually Caleb found his words.

“Mollymauk, I, um, I-I am sorry. About what happened out there. About, er, what I did.”

Somehow, in the vast lexicon of possible beginnings, they hadn’t expected him to pick that one. Something about the words, the way Caleb said them, made something heavy and cold twist through Molly’s chest.

“What do you mean?” they heard themself ask.

“Ah—” He flapped his hands helplessly for a moment before burying them deep in his coat pockets. “Kissing you. Like that. So, um, so suddenly. I was panicking, wh-when we heard that woman coming, I knew the spell was about to fade, but…but I know it was too far, it was too much to spring on you like that. I should have thought of a better way out. And so, I’m sorry.”

The knot of cold wound itself a little tighter. They had imagined kissing Caleb so many times. And, circumstances aside, the kiss itself had been even better than their most fevered daydreams. But none of their imaginings had ended with Caleb apologizing for initiating, with Caleb making it clear that the kiss had been just a means to an end – a good means to a successful end, but a means all the same.

There was a part of them raging at the rest of themself, trying to break through the numb haze and insist that they were being ridiculous. But that didn’t change the bone deep feeling that here was an admission that Caleb felt nothing for them – that Caleb cared for and respected them as a friend but felt nothing for Molly that would actually lead to him enjoying kissing them.

“Mollymauk?”

The sound of Caleb’s voice brought them back to the present. They blinked their vision clear to see him still standing in front of the door, except now he looked scared, close to frightened. His head was tucked down against his chest, his fingers were twisting so frantically that he looked on the verge of breaking something. Molly realized he was waiting for their response, and every second of silence was making him think that they were angry, that he’d done wrong or fucked something up.

And he hadn’t, of course he hadn’t. So Molly forced a smile onto their face and nodded at him, waved a shaking hand dismissively. “Caleb, it’s fine. It’s like you said – a bad situation with not a lot of time to think up a way out. I’ll be honest, I froze completely. Thank the gods you _did_ think of something. It worked, after all, and that’s what matters, and—” And the words they said next tasted like bile, but they said them anyway, for the sake of setting Caleb’s mind at ease and maybe making it easier for themself to accept.

“—I know you didn’t mean anything by it. It’s fine. _Honestly_.”

Once again, the briefest flicker of _something_, some unreadable shadow, passed across Caleb’s face. Then he closed his eyes, took another deep breath in, and when he let it out he seemed to exhale the ramrod tension in his shoulders along with it. He straightened up, opened his eyes, smiled at Molly in obvious relief. “Thank you,” he said. And then: “I, I will still try to be better, moving forward. I will try to think further ahead.”

“We didn’t get _caught_, Caleb. That’s what matters. So as far as I’m concerned, you’re doing fine. In the meantime, ah--” They gestured at themself, and hoped the shaking in their hands wouldn’t be too obvious. “I guess the shock got to me a little. Sorry. I’ll probably have a nap before lunch, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not.”

Molly had a wild urge to ask Caleb to come to bed with them again. To let Molly sleep at his back and let their tail twitch against his leg and let their friend’s breathing lull them to sleep.

It was a urge they ruthlessly tamped down on. Instead, they just got to their feet, offered Caleb one last nod and smile, then turned on their heel and headed towards the bedroom. 

They barely had time to settle down and slip into a doze before they felt the mattress shift ever so slightly. Molly half-opened their eyes to find themself nose to nose with a ginger tabby. Apparently satisfied that he’d gotten their acknowledgement, Frumpkin did a blep of greeting, then flopped down against Molly’s chest.

He stretched long and languid at the first brush of Molly’s fingertips, and petting him was the last thing they remembered for a while.

* * *

The rest of the week passed as they’d expected and planned for. By the time the final feast of the festivities rolled around, Molly and Caleb felt confident that they had enough material to expose and blackmail their target up one side of the Menagerie Coast and down the other. Now all they had to do was keep up the pretense for one more night, then slip away in the morning alongside the other departing nobility and rejoin the Nein on the road. With luck, they’d be well away and have the chance to spread their information so far and so wide that there’d never be a hope of this being traced back to them.

Luck was not on their side, and Molly realized as much in the same instant that they realized their wine had been poisoned.

Even that took longer than it should have. It was too easy to brush off the growing dizziness as just a reaction to the close confines of the feast table, the candlesmoke, the grating harp music. It was too easy to think that they were just nauseous because of a week of eating too-rich foods.

It was only when they got to their feet with the intention of getting some air and nearly fell on their face that they realized what must have happened. Molly had known too many hard nights of drinking and partaken of too many different and fascinating varieties of drug. Drink and food and unpleasant company should not have been having such an effect.

Which left only one possible answer.

“Mollymauk?”

Caleb’s voice sounded as if it were coming from so far away, but when Molly lifted their head they saw that he was kneeling right beside them, resting a hand on their back, concern plain on his face even as it swam in and out of focus. Trying to answer didn’t even occur to them. They were suddenly, frantically trying to remember how much Caleb had drunk that night. Was the sweat they could see beading on his brow a side-effect of the close, oppressive atmosphere, or a sign that the poison was already taking hold?

No point in taking chances. They reached out to grip his arm and felt the eye mark on their shoulder tear itself open to bleed through their fancy silk shirt. Caleb shuddered and gasped as Molly forcibly purged his system, alcohol tearing itself out of his pores to patter down onto the carpet, along with something vicious and black that left smoking holes wherever it fell.

Once Caleb recovered from the shock of the maledict, they saw him stare at the stains left behind, and they grinned to see the wheels turning in his head very, very quickly. His eyes were already so much clearer than they’d been.

“Time to go,” they said. They lifted their head a little further to see that they were already drawing a surrounding crowd of seemingly concerned onlookers. But that was fine. That didn’t have to be a problem. Most of them probably weren’t involved and so would probably get out of the way with a good, sharp shove. Molly didn’t see their target, however, and that was potentially a _big_ problem.

Caleb’s jaw went tight. He nodded, then set to work helping Molly to their feet, barking out orders for the crowd to disperse as he did so. Most of them did so – they saw lords and ladies with wide eyes, heads bent with whispers, brightly colored fabrics and patterns blurring and tangling together in the smoky light as people milled about and got in one another’s way. But at least Caleb had them moving. Molly hoped it was to the door.

“Mollymauk,” Caleb whispered. “Can you, ah, do your thing again?”

They lifted their head. Caleb was indeed leading them towards the door. The two guards on it didn’t seem inclined to get out of the way of a sick tiefling.

“Let’s see how much trouble they cause, hm?” they murmured back. Caleb still had his spells, but the first sign of magic would cause a panic and possibly a stampede. They didn’t have their scimitars. Why in all the hells had they let Fjord talk them into giving up their scimitars?

They knew that Caleb would be willing to use his magic to get them out of here. They could tell as soon as they got within arms’ reach of the guards that they were going to be a problem. The guards put up a good show of pretending otherwise, but even without someone else’s instincts, Molly could smell a trap closing around them, could pick out people pretending not to be predators. The guards tried to block the door, tried to insist they wait for a healer to be brought, or that the two of them let themselves be led elsewhere “for their own protection”. Caleb tried to cast first a spell of suggestion and then a spell of friendship, but either the guards were too strong-willed or his own composure was too shaken by their near-miss.

As if it were all moving in slow motion, Molly saw one of them reaching out to grab Caleb by the wrist, and they knew, they just _knew_ that the second the man laid hands on the wizard then Caleb would start throwing around more obvious magic and then so many things would get so much more complicated.

Molly managed to act first. With a snarl, they blinded first one guard and then the other and then hurled themself bodily into the first before he truly registered what was happening, shoulder-checking him hard into the wall before barking at Caleb: _“Go!”_

Caleb needed no further prompting. He darted through the opening Molly had made, slammed the door open and then was off down the hall like a shot, apparently trusting to Molly to follow. With adrenaline coursing hot and high through their blood, Molly found that they could indeed follow, for now at least, as from behind them they heard the murmurs of concern morph quickly into shouts of alarm.

Their heart leapt into their throat as they saw Caleb disappear up ahead of them, then their wits caught up and they stared down at themself to find that they’d gone invisible as well. It wouldn’t cover their tracks completely, but they didn’t need it to. All they _really_ needed to do was make it to their rooms, gather up their things, and have Caleb draw a teleportation circle to get them at least a little ways away. It wouldn’t be the most graceful exit but considering that someone – probably the man they’d been gathering blackmail material on for a solid week – had tried to poison them both, a lack of grace was ultimately a minor concern.

Hopefully they’d just need a few more minutes.

Caleb fumbled with the door to their rooms but got it open just as Molly was gearing up to kick it down. They both stumbled inside and immediately set to work grabbing for papers and supplies, colliding with each other in their panic and haste before they recovered their wits. Once they’d each made a pass of the room, Molly took charge of their bags and Caleb got out his chalk to start scrawling a teleportation circle on the carpet. Molly tried to take a second pass around the room, but they could feel themself starting to grow truly weak and dizzy, the poison taking hold fiercely enough that even adrenaline couldn’t keep it at bay.

It seemed like they blinked, and suddenly Caleb was standing there in front of them, reaching up to rest a cool palm against their cheek. He was talking, low and fast, but they couldn’t make out whatever he was saying and even this close, his face seemed blurred and indistinct. Molly tried to listen, but their thoughts kept going fuzzy at the edges and sliding out of reach. In the end, they just tilted their face against Caleb’s hand and the blessed relief it brought to the feverish heat which felt as if it were scouring them in a way true fire never could.

_“Scheisse.”_

They saw Caleb fumble frantically in his pockets for something, something that he broke apart and twisted between his fingers, and Molly knew a rush of fear as they felt themself twist and blur, saw the world warp around them, until…

Until the rush of changing passed, and suddenly they felt much better.

Caleb was much taller, everything was much bigger, but they felt much better, and when they tried to get their thoughts in order, they found that they still came easily. They were Mollymauk Tealeaf, Molly to their friends, and Caleb had just polymorphed them into…something.

“There,” Caleb whispered, and Molly let out a startled yowl as the wizard reached down and gathered them up. “I, I-I think that worked. That should hold you steady for a while.” He shifted Molly to one arm – Molly tried to keep their wings from hitting him in the face, realizing only in that moment that they _had_ wings now. Then Caleb slung their bags over his other arm before bending down to draw the last line of the circle with a flourish. “Away we go, _katzchen.”_

The circle blazed into life, then he dashed through with Molly in his arms, and they felt the familiar rush of cold and void before the world came slamming back into focus around them.

They stumbled back into reality within the walls of the Cobalt Reserve in Zadash, a good two days away from the castle they’d been at just seconds before, a good two days away from their friends but also from the one who had attempted to poison them both. Their friends could catch up, however, and – as long as Caleb and Molly held on to their blackmail material in the meantime – they could still do what they’d been paid to do.

The mission had, in a roundabout way, just become a success.

And that thought was such an immeasurably delightful relief that Molly was momentarily overcome with the instincts of their new form. So, they promptly set to work enthusiastically licking Caleb’s face. He laughed, ducking his head as their sandpaper tongue rasped against his cheeks and otherwise making no move to stop them. The moment was quickly broken, however by the door slamming open and three guards of the Cobalt Soul arriving, demanding to know their business.

Fortunately, Caleb alone was able to offer a reasonably decent explanation that was only half a lie, especially when he made it clear that he was only passing through. Begrudgingly, suspiciously, the guards nevertheless escorted them out of the Reserve without further issue, depositing them both on to the streets of Zadash to look after themselves for a couple of days.

Caleb shifted Molly to rest more comfortably in his arms, then started off down the darkened city streets to find them a place to stay.

At some point along the trip, Molly got the idea to try and take a proper look at themself. They eventually managed to catch a glimpse of their appearance in a shop window. In doing so, they realized with a start that Caleb had polymorphed them into a winged cat – dark fur brindled in purple, deep red eyes, and large wings colored brightly enough to put a peacock to shame.

Caleb saw them looking, saw them craning their head to keep looking before the shop window was out of sight. “Ah, yes!” he said, babbling happily now that the danger was passed. “You are very handsome like this, Mollymauk. Not that you aren’t always very nice to look at, of course. But right now, ah, you are what is known as a _tressyn_ – a winged magic cat. They are commonly believed to be descended from regular cats that ran afoul of a wizard’s experimentations very long ago. Now they are very good and, and very smart, so I hope you are not feeling too disoriented. And, most importantly, they are supposed to be entirely immune to any sort of poison.”

Well, that explained some things.

And licking Caleb’s face suddenly didn’t seem like a remotely sufficient sign of gratitude for his quick thinking which might just have saved their life. So instead, after a moment’s deep reflection and a couple of false starts, Molly started to purr, long and slow and deep. The sound seemed to startle Caleb, at first – then he realized what was happening, then he looked down at Molly with such an achingly warm and fond expression on his face. He stopped right there in the middle of the street to hug Molly close, mindful of their wings, and Molly nuzzled their face against the crook of his neck.

The moment seemed to last a blissful eternity before it came to an end by some strange, unspoken understanding. Then Caleb got Molly comfortable in his arms again before he resumed his walking. “I, ah, I think I will keep you like this for a while, as long as I can, and then maybe when you have to turn back to yourself, the poison will have had time to work its way out of you. What do you think?”

Molly thought that they didn’t feel like they were about to die anymore and that they were increasingly looking forward to getting the chance to try out their wings. All told, they had no complaints there and then, and tried to show as much by licking Caleb’s fingers. The message seemed to come through well enough; Caleb laughed, and it was such a warm and wonderful sound to them. “And in the meantime, I will try to find us something good to eat for a change.”

He proved as good as his word. It was much too late at night for them to find much of anything fresh at the meat or fish markets, but Caleb bought them a string of dark red sausages, a slab of pork fat, and a side of lamb meat that had gone tough after a day of sitting out but which he promised Molly he could soften up nicely. Given that he had to maintain concentration on the polymorph spell, the actual cooking up of their late supper involved slipping five silver to the innkeeper once they got a room. But in the end, they were given use of the kitchen for a couple of hours, since the dinner rush had long since died down. Caleb left Molly and Frumpkin to keep each other company as he cooked.

The smell of roasting meat and the sound of sizzling fat drove Molly slowly but steadily insane. Figuring out how to fly turned out to be not as difficult as they’d feared and a wonderful distraction for it, but every few minutes they still found themself drifting over to Caleb to twine around his ankles or nuzzle at his shoulders, mewling plaintively. It _had_ to be done by now, right? It _had_ to. They barely even noticed when Caleb recast the polymorph spell, so desperate were they by then to get their teeth into that sausage.

At last, Caleb set down a plate of fried _blutwurst_ and _speck_ in front of Molly, then sat down on the floor beside him to dig into his own share while he waited for the lamb to finish roasting in the oven. The food tasted so impossibly good to Molly – maybe because they were a cat at the moment, maybe just because they were still riding high on success, and probably at least a little because Caleb wasn’t a half-bad cook when the situation called for it. They devoured it with a will, and periodically felt driven on to show their gratitude by leaning heavily against Caleb’s leg and purring up a storm. Every time they did so, Caleb would wipe his fingers on a rag to try and minimize the chances of getting pork grease in their fur as he petted them back.

They were reasonably full by the time they were finished eating, but when the _schäufele_ was pulled out of the oven, it smelled so good and proved so tender that Molly felt compelled to dig in alongside Caleb anyway. By the time the plates contained nothing but crumbs, they felt so full, so decadently replete, that there was nothing for it but to curl up in Caleb’s lap while they waited to digest.

After a while, already half-dozing from their full stomach and the feeling of Caleb’s fingers scritching the top of their head, Molly felt themself gathered up in Caleb’s arms and carried out of the kitchen, back upstairs, towards their room. They didn’t even bother to open their eyes and, indeed, they didn’t have to. They just heard a door opening, felt themself being settled carefully down onto a mattress. Caleb sat down on the floor beside the bed, then resumed petting them gently.

Only then did they deign to crack open one eye. It was to see Caleb there, so close, looking so tired but smiling all the same. His smile only grew more pronounced when he saw Molly staring at him. He leaned in even closer, ducked his head to press their brows together. “Go to sleep, Mollymauk,” he murmured, soft and warm. “Everything is fine. I will keep watch. You are safe – just try to sleep.”

They believed him. Of course they did.

So Molly just butted their forehead back against Caleb’s, licked his nose, then laid their head back down on their folded paws and let their eyes fall closed once more.

* * *

They woke to the sight of a grey, pre-dawn sky out the window.

They felt terrible – every muscle aching, their mouth dry as a bone. But it felt like the sort of pain that came from a fever breaking, rather than burning higher. And indeed, when they cautiously tried to stretch, their limbs moved with shakiness but without difficulty, and they could tell that they’d managed to keep down their food for the last several hours. That was probably a good sign.

They realized that when they’d stretched, the body they’d moved had been a humanoid one, with fingers instead of paws and horns instead of wings. They were back in their own shape again – probably because Caleb had finally run out of magic to maintain the polymorph – and, against all odds, they were not dead. Caleb must have managed to keep them as a tressyn long enough for the poison to run its course.

“Molly?”

They looked over to see Caleb, still sitting by the bed, though now he had a book open in his lap. Disregarding it in that moment, he instead scanned their face intently, brow furrowed and concern in his eyes. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” they croaked, and meant it. “Not dead. That’s good.”

“Not dead,” Caleb agreed, and they could see in his eyes the worry he must have been trying to choke down all night.

“Thank you.”

He blushed – he actually _blushed,_ his gaze falling to his lap. “It’s nothing. What else would I have done?”

“It’s not nothing, you ridiculous man” Molly insisted. Their arms felt like lead, but they managed to reach out to tap him lightly on the nose, to get him to look at him. When he did, eyes wide and startled, they smiled. “It’s like I said, back at the start. We made a great team, you and I. Couldn’t have asked for a better partner for such a big scam.”

The blush didn’t fade, and honestly that was fine, it was very cute and suited him nicely. But at least their words teased a grin out of Caleb, tired and faint but apparently sincere all the same. “_Ja_. I suppose not. And, and likewise, Molly. I know I got us here, to Zadash, but, but if you hadn’t thought as quickly as you did, we might not have made it out of that dining room at all.”

It was stupid, ridiculous, childish, but hearing Caleb praise them would never not make their heart swell up in their chest and race a little faster. The feeling was especially sweet this time, something warm and soft to balance against the aches and pains of the poison fading. “What else would I have done?” they said, and the echo of his own words right back at him made Caleb chuckle. “It’ll be nice,” Molly added. “To not have to pretend for people anymore. To just go back to being me, all the way.”

“I can imagine,” Caleb said, and his expression didn’t change, not _really_, but they saw that same flicker pass across his face, linger in his eyes, that same flash of _something_ that they’d seen more than once over the past week and had assumed the meaning of so easily.

But Molly realized in that moment that they’d never dared to _ask_.

And maybe it was something about the thrill of success or the rush of a near death experience, but finally taking the step to ask didn’t seem quite as terrifying as it would have the day before.

“Not that…_all_ of it was pretending,” they said, quieter than they’d meant to. Caleb heard them anyway. They saw him tense, saw him twitch as if a spark of lightning had just been run up his spine. It gave them the hope they needed to barrel on. “Caleb? This week has been _bloody exhausting_. I’m so tired of, of _fake_ things. Of lying smiles and pretend feelings.” After some time to recover themself amidst their friends and family, they knew that weariness would fade and they’d remember how to love a good costume and charade. For now, the exhaustion went bone deep in so many ways, and the need to escape it drove them on to ask the most important question.

“But you and me and, and _us_, in there, all of that…was any of it real?”

Caleb’s breathing started to come a little faster. His eyes darted left, right, down, as if seeking an escape or a right answer. The four or five seconds it took for him to answer seemed to stretch on forever. But Molly waited patiently. It was the least they could do.

His voice was rough when he found it again, hoarse with so much emotion and a note of something that might have been hope. Caleb lifted his head again and looked them right in their eye, took a deep breath and said: “Yes.”

His eyes were so bright and so clear and he was so, so beautiful. Molly’s breath froze in their throat, the world went distant and fuzzy all around them, everything faded into indistinct unimportance except for Caleb, here and close and maybe, truly _theirs’_ just as they’d always been his at heart.

They didn’t know which one of them leaned in first. All that mattered was that they met in the middle and the first brush of lips against lips was followed by another and another and another.

_It was real for me, too_, they tried to say with the kiss. And later, when they were less exhausted, when things had had time to settle, they would say all of this with their voice as many times as Caleb needed to hear it. _In that place and for so long before it. I love you, I love you, I love you…_

Eventually, they broke apart for air, but even that was slow and careful and tinged with reluctance. Their gazes met and Molly hoped their expression conveyed even half the warmth and love that Caleb’s did for them.

But somehow, the words they actually said aloud once they got their breath back were: “Did you sleep? At all?”

The bags under his eyes already told them everything they needed to know, even before he answered: “No. Not, ah, not yet. I had to keep concentration. But, I mean, it’s not as if we have anywhere to be today. Nothing much to do but wait for the others.”

“True enough,” Molly said. The yawn that escaped them was only a little exaggerated for effect. “Well! I’m not dead, and that’s not about to change, all thanks to your own efforts, Mister Caleb. I think it’s about time for you to make up for lost time, then.”

They scooted aside to leave one side of the mattress clear, then patted it in invitation. “If you don’t mind me catching another nap along with you, that is.” They felt alert, they felt alive, but they also still felt exhausted, like they could easily sleep through until the afternoon.

Caleb shook his head, and the lack of hesitation with which he crawled into bed and stretched out beside them made their heart thrill. “I could never,” he said, and Molly’s memory was far from perfect but they wanted to encase this moment in amber and hold tight to it forever.

It felt like they were fully and completely present, immersed in everything about their surroundings – the way the mattress shifted beneath their bodies, the feeling of the blankets Caleb drew up and over them both, the sound of drowsy birdsong audible in the distance beyond the windowsill, the barest hesitation on Caleb’s face before he leaned over and kissed their cheek.

“Sleep well, Mollymauk.”

They returned the kiss, exulting in the way it seemed to ease some of the tired lines etched into Caleb’s face Then they laid themself down and waited for him to do the same. “Sleep well, Caleb.”

Caleb fell asleep first. Molly was not long in following. They cuddled close and slept at his side, let their tail twitch against his leg, and let their boyfriend’s breathing lull them back to sleep.


End file.
